Monday, November 23, 2015

Snap up those annuals!

With Christmas fast approaching it's time to grab your copies of this year's annuals while you can! My local WH Smith sold out of The Dandy Annual 2016 weeks ago and sadly shows no sign of restocking.I know some of you wait until December to buy the annuals (or even wait until the January sales) but the books have been out since July so it's better to buy early to ensure your copies. Sainsbury are currently selling The Beano Annual 2016 for £3.49, which is an absolute bargain. They've sold out of The Dandy Annual in my local branch though. Fortunately I bought my copies back in July, and reviewed them here if you want a preview of the contents:http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/theyre-here-dandy-and-beano-annuals-2016.htmlI'm currently drawing pages for the Dandy Annual that will be out next year, which inspired me to post this plug for the current books. Never Be Without A Beano (or Dandy) Annual!

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I don't think it's a bargain when the annuals used to be about 35p or 7shillings in old money. July? Ridiculous! Small wonder they're sold out before Christmas. It used to be that in the old days the annuals only appeared a week or two before the big day, and they sold more of them then! I remember being taken to Smiths the week before Christmas to choose which ones I wanted Father Christmas to bring me. Now you say they're on sale in July! Where's the magic gone. Mick

You may have only seen them the week before Christmas when you were a boy but I assure you that annuals have always been in the shops months before Christmas Day. It used to be August or September but July has been the release date for a few years now.

Very unfair to say the half-price offer isn't a bargain - this is 2015 Mick, everything is somewhat more expensive than it used to be. And I also remember as a child in the 80s they were out in August, tables of every single title which we chose from for Santa to deliver that Christmas. It's still a magical time for kids and fans of these books.

Good point, Phil. Sorry Mick but it's unrealistic to expect the annuals to be at yesterday's prices. At £3.49 they're already heavily discounted and are cheaper than most comics!

Yes, the magic is still there. Some of today's kids will be having their first annuals this Christmas and will have the same sort of joy that we all did at that age. When you're young and everything's new, the whole world is full of wonder.

A childhood ritual for me was looking at the toys and annuals in our Autumn/Winter mail order catalogue which we received around September or thereabouts so the annuals of yesteryear definitely came out months before Christmas. A few weeks ago my local Tesco was selling the Beano Christmas special but now they are gone - I assumed they'd be available all the way up to Christmas.

To put that £3.49 price into perspective, now that The Beano costs £2.50 usually, it will probably be £3.50 whenever it's bagged up with gifts. £3.49 is also less than the cost of the Christmas Special bookazine (which by the way, Colin, should have been available until at least January - in fact, I don't think there's an off sale date at all, I've seen the summer specials still on sale very recently).

My annuals are already bought (at what works out as 50p above half price, thanks to WHSmith's buy one get a second one for £1 deal), but I'm not reading them until Christmas Day. I don't see the point in gambling on them not being sold out when they get reduced to £2 on Christmas Eve.

I've since seen the Beano and Dandy annuals, among others, in Asda on a £4 each or 3 for £10 deal - which works out at £3.33 each.

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Established in 2006, BLIMEY! is dedicated to British comics past and present. Images are copyright their respective publishers and are only used here for review purposes.

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About Me

I work as a professional humour comics artist and writer and have been freelancing full time since 1984, creating many characters such as TOM THUG, PETE AND HIS PIMPLE, COMBAT COLIN, BRICKMAN, ROBO-CAPERS, DEREK THE TROLL, SUBURBAN SATANISTS and others.
I've freelanced for IPC, Marvel Comics, Egmont, Panini,D.C. Thomson, and many others, covering the comics field from originated characters to licensed properties, pre-school to adult on comics such as BUSTER, OINK!, BEANO, DANDY, TRANSFORMERS, SONIC THE COMIC, TOXIC, VIZ, CiTV TELLYTOTS, LEGO ADVENTURES, HERMAN HEDNING, SWEET FA, ACTION FORCE, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, RAMPAGE, LUCKY BAG COMIC, SWIFTSURE, WARLOCK, WHITE DWARF, ACES WEEKLY, THE DAREDEVILS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, and many more.
My recent comics work has included:'Team Toxic' for Egmont's TOXIC magazine'Postman Prat', 'Kid Cops' and 'The Dark Newt' for THE DANDY'Rasher', 'Pup Parade', 'Lord Snooty' and 'Ivy the Terrible' for THE BEANO.
'The Daft Dimension' for DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE.